Probably should have a thread by this point...
I'm a reasonable distance into it now so I can give some decent impressions.
It's been said that this is effectively Baldur's Gate 3. That's not really true, it's probably more accurate to say this builds on KOTOR and Mass Effect and brings Bioware back into a fantasy setting. It's not quite as hard core and in depth, there are fewer classes and fewer spells/abilities than in BG2. There's an element of streamlining throughout, such as the auto-res when combate ends, a spell and ability system that feels a lot like an MMORPG.
The single player MMO feeling applies to a lot of the game. There are 6 different 'character backgrounds' that are pretty much the same as starting areas, you get some basic quests to teach you the ropes and ultimately they lead you into the meat of the game. There was a lot made of these as being part of your character customisation but really, for most classes you get no choice in background, rather than making your characters richer, they're really things that add to the replay value.
In creating a character you don't have a huge amount of customisation. You can do the typical alterations of look, pick from a (fairly limited) range of classes, pick spells, skills, talents and abilities and assign attribute points. There's no choice in alignment (in fact, the game gives no obvious indicators of good or evil actions which could be an issue for morally grey choices) and class specialisation doesn't come until level 7. It's a streamlined system designed to ensure it's not as overwhelming as other hardcore RPGs. That's not to say you can't do a totally awful build, just that you're guided better.
The big problem (as a mage) is that spell descriptions aren't great. It's not entirely clear how much damage a spell will do, how much MP it will take up and so on. It also seems initially that Bioware don't want you to make a purely offensive mage. Most direct damage spells do very little damage and you're better off on healing, doing status attacks and auto attacks with staves.
Playing on normal, the game is challenging but there's a feeling that the balance isn't quite right. Enemies, especially archers, do a bit too much damage and battles often turn into healing and potion spam. The battles are fun and heavily tactical but all to often it seems you're spending the entire time keeping characters alive. I said before that it uses an MMO system for spells and abilities (mp/stamina usage and cooldowns) but Bioware have kept the active pause system where you can issue orders when paused. If you don't do this, you will not get far, the game is balanced around this.
I believe a patch is out now that increases damage done and lessens damage received. I imagine this will make the first major boss battle you come across a whole less farcical (15 minutes of my mage being chased by him whilst the rest of the party do pathetic damage to him as).
The camera (on the PC, which is the version I have) is fairly annoying. Using the overhead view, it's still at a slight angle and doesn't zoom out far enough. Given this game loves spamming archers and they're almost always offscreen, it adds some unnessecery difficulty to the game. The graphics aren't all that impressive, the textures are horribly low res in particular. However there is a pretty impressive action scene done using in game graphics. The engine is obviously designed to throw around a large number of models on screen at once.
The dialogue is excellent. The characters are a lot more chatty than in Baldurs Gate and there is some brilliant dialogue (alas no miniature giant space hamsters). The interplay between Morrigan and Alastair is brilliant, you'll want them both in the main party just for the dialogue (which is a bit of a problem for party balance given you can only have four people, including yourself). It's just a shame that there's a bit too much inadvertant humour from the fact that you spend a lot of cut scenes covered in blood.
Sounds like I'm finding lots wrong with this but a problem with very good games is that the better they are, the more the faults stick out. It's an excellent RPG but it's prevented from being an all time great by lots of very minor issues. It's a must buy for fans of Western RPGs, even if it's not better than BG2.
One last thing: partway through the game, you come across someone, get pretty far into a dialogue tree, get ready to accept a quest, then... The game asks you to log in and spend EA points. A paid DLC quest partway through a game at launch is utterly unacceptable. Not only do you feel like you're getting ripped off, it comepletely takes you out of the game. Dick move there EA.
I'm a reasonable distance into it now so I can give some decent impressions.
It's been said that this is effectively Baldur's Gate 3. That's not really true, it's probably more accurate to say this builds on KOTOR and Mass Effect and brings Bioware back into a fantasy setting. It's not quite as hard core and in depth, there are fewer classes and fewer spells/abilities than in BG2. There's an element of streamlining throughout, such as the auto-res when combate ends, a spell and ability system that feels a lot like an MMORPG.
The single player MMO feeling applies to a lot of the game. There are 6 different 'character backgrounds' that are pretty much the same as starting areas, you get some basic quests to teach you the ropes and ultimately they lead you into the meat of the game. There was a lot made of these as being part of your character customisation but really, for most classes you get no choice in background, rather than making your characters richer, they're really things that add to the replay value.
In creating a character you don't have a huge amount of customisation. You can do the typical alterations of look, pick from a (fairly limited) range of classes, pick spells, skills, talents and abilities and assign attribute points. There's no choice in alignment (in fact, the game gives no obvious indicators of good or evil actions which could be an issue for morally grey choices) and class specialisation doesn't come until level 7. It's a streamlined system designed to ensure it's not as overwhelming as other hardcore RPGs. That's not to say you can't do a totally awful build, just that you're guided better.
The big problem (as a mage) is that spell descriptions aren't great. It's not entirely clear how much damage a spell will do, how much MP it will take up and so on. It also seems initially that Bioware don't want you to make a purely offensive mage. Most direct damage spells do very little damage and you're better off on healing, doing status attacks and auto attacks with staves.
Playing on normal, the game is challenging but there's a feeling that the balance isn't quite right. Enemies, especially archers, do a bit too much damage and battles often turn into healing and potion spam. The battles are fun and heavily tactical but all to often it seems you're spending the entire time keeping characters alive. I said before that it uses an MMO system for spells and abilities (mp/stamina usage and cooldowns) but Bioware have kept the active pause system where you can issue orders when paused. If you don't do this, you will not get far, the game is balanced around this.
I believe a patch is out now that increases damage done and lessens damage received. I imagine this will make the first major boss battle you come across a whole less farcical (15 minutes of my mage being chased by him whilst the rest of the party do pathetic damage to him as).
The camera (on the PC, which is the version I have) is fairly annoying. Using the overhead view, it's still at a slight angle and doesn't zoom out far enough. Given this game loves spamming archers and they're almost always offscreen, it adds some unnessecery difficulty to the game. The graphics aren't all that impressive, the textures are horribly low res in particular. However there is a pretty impressive action scene done using in game graphics. The engine is obviously designed to throw around a large number of models on screen at once.
The dialogue is excellent. The characters are a lot more chatty than in Baldurs Gate and there is some brilliant dialogue (alas no miniature giant space hamsters). The interplay between Morrigan and Alastair is brilliant, you'll want them both in the main party just for the dialogue (which is a bit of a problem for party balance given you can only have four people, including yourself). It's just a shame that there's a bit too much inadvertant humour from the fact that you spend a lot of cut scenes covered in blood.
Sounds like I'm finding lots wrong with this but a problem with very good games is that the better they are, the more the faults stick out. It's an excellent RPG but it's prevented from being an all time great by lots of very minor issues. It's a must buy for fans of Western RPGs, even if it's not better than BG2.
One last thing: partway through the game, you come across someone, get pretty far into a dialogue tree, get ready to accept a quest, then... The game asks you to log in and spend EA points. A paid DLC quest partway through a game at launch is utterly unacceptable. Not only do you feel like you're getting ripped off, it comepletely takes you out of the game. Dick move there EA.
) so maybe i should wait for patch before playing?
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